Siemens AG on Monday announced that it plans to buy chips and software from rival Motorola Corp. for upcoming 3G cell phones.
The phones will use Motorolas i.300 Innovative Convergence platform, which uses UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) technology. Phones based on the platform are due early in 2004, said officials at Siemens in Munich. The i.300 platform includes Motorolas Dragonball processors.
In the meantime, Motorola plans to provide Siemens with entire handsets by the end of 2002. The first such device that Siemens intends to sell this year will be a re-branded version of the Motorolas A820, a dual-mode UMTS phone that includes multimedia messaging, a video camera, and support for the Bluetooth wireless protocol.
The companies will continue to sell products that compete, but the hope is that teaming up will help both of them move up in the marketplace and speed up the adoption of UMTS, which competes with several other 3G protocols. Both Siemens and Motorola have announced massive job cuts in the past year in order to save costs.
“This decision will best position Siemens to support our customers on their way to UMTS and to achieve rapid adoption of this new technology in the marketplace,” said Rudi Lamprecht, a member of the board at Siemens, in a statement.